The Mindanao war cost the Philippine government a staggering
PhP2.013 trillion during the 31-year period from 1970 to 2001, an amount nearly
equivalent to the PhP2.606 trillion 2015 national budget!
This was disclosed by the Office of the Presidential Adviser
on the Peace Process (OPAPP) based on the data it gathered from various
sources, including the World Bank (WB).
The government spent some PhP73 billion to finance
government forces in combat operations against the secessionist Moro National
Liberation Front (MNLF) from 1970 to 1996.
The years of fighting had killed nearly 120,000 people,
excluding the tens of thousands of wounded from both sides and civilians caught
in the crossfire. It was a bloody conventional warfare as the MNLF forces
directly attacked military camps and installations.
Fifty percent of the casualties were MNLF while the military
sustained 30 percent and civilians 20 percent killed during the period.
In terms of social welfare disruption, 982,000 were
displaced during the 2000 all-out war.
Some of these battles were witnessed by defense reporters at
that time, including this writer and Alex Allan of the now defunct Philippine
Daily Express in the late 1970s.
One of the fiercest fighting happened in Jolo, Sulu in the
first half of February 1974 when MNLF rebels attacked and burned the provincial
capital and occupied it for days before they were driven out by government
forces, particularly the 14th Infantry Battalion of the Philippine Army
commanded by then Col. Salvador M. Mison.
The war ended when the Philippine government and MNLF signed
the historic peace agreement on Sept. 2, 1996 during the administration of
President Fidel V. Ramos.
But the 1996 peace accord was disrupted when the breakaway
group Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) protested the signing and continued
its war with the government.
A ceasefire was signed in 1997 but this did not last long
when a new administration under President Joseph Estrada declared an all-out
war against the MILF in the summer of 2000 after the rebels launched several
attacks on military and civilian population.
After three months of fighting, the Armed Forces of the
Philippines (AFP) captured practically all the 49 MILF camps in various parts
of Mindanao and forced the rebels to withdraw.
The cost of the all-out war in 2000 that lasted for three
months, more or less, was an enormous PhP1.3 billion in military operations.
In addition, the county incurred economic losses amounting
to a staggering PhP640 billion or PhP20 billion per year from 1970 to 2001 in
terms of damages to businesses and properties, potential investments and
businesses in the region had there been better security (no war).”
While the war was won by the AFP, the fighting had not
stopped as the MILF forces continued its armed struggle.
It was only during the time of President Gloria
Macapagal-Arroyo that peace talks between the government and the MILF resumed
sometime in 2004.
However, fighting erupted anew in 2008 when the
controversial Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain (MOA-AD) about to be
signed was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.
The renewed fighting had displaced some 600,000 people.
It was only in 2009 that the peace process reopened during
the remaining six months of the Arroyo government and was pursued by a new
administration under President Benigno S. Aquino III in 2010 that resulted in
the signing of the Comprehensive Agreement on Bangsamoro (CAB) between the
government and MILF on March 27, 2014.
Under the agreement, the MILF would turn over their firearms
to a third party, which would be selected by the rebels and the Philippine
government. The MILF has agreed to decommission its armed wing, the Bangsamoro
Islamic Armed Forces (BIAF). In return, the government will establish an
autonomous Bangsamoro.
The Aquino government is now asking Congress for the passage
of the Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL), the legal instrument that will
operationalize the agreements as contained in the Framework Agreement on the
Bangsamoro signed on Oct. 15, 2012 and its annexes.
Once enacted by Congress, the BBL shall undergo a process of
popular ratification by the qualified voters in the proposed core territory.
However, the BBL has suffered a setback following the bloody
Mamapasano incident that killed 44 police commandos of the Special Action Force
(SAF) of the Philippine National Police (PNP) tasked to serve a warrant of
arrest for wanted international terrorists Zulkifli bin Hir, alias Marwan, in
Mamasapano, Maguindanao last Jan. 25.
OPAPP is still hoping the controversial measure will be
passed by Congress to end the long-drawn armed conflict in southern Philippines
http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?idn=1&sid=&nid=1&rid=749771
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